Peer Pressure

I went to visit the International School of the Peninsula yesterday, which has the oldest Chinese immersion program in Bay Area. The school started out as a French immersion school, and added the Chinese immersion program in mid 1990s. When I showed up at the school, there were already a dozen parents there. Apparently, a lot of them met each other before. I did not know anyone, but I did recognize that one woman is a partner at perhaps most of the best-known venture capital firms in the country. They were chatting with each other, reminding each other where they last met, and I heard “Day One”. I asked what “Day One” was, and it turned out to be a place for expectant mothers and those with infants to attend classes. It has locations in San Francisco, Walnut Creek and Palo Alto, where perhaps there is the high-end need for super-attentive prenatal and post-natal care. Once again, I felt like the least prepared and most delinquent mother there. I now realize why I have hesitated joining any mothers’ club – it is because I will always feel like a loser in such a group! :)

Interestingly, out of the dozen parents there, only one parent was there for the French immersion program. I could not help asking the director of admissions what the acceptance rate for Chinese immersion program is these days, as well as the reasons for rejecting a kid. She of course tried to be reassuring and said that it’s about 60-70% acceptance rate, and the rejection was often because the kid was not ready for such a structured environment.

The tour was ver nice. Everything I saw and heard was great. I got to see the class in action in nursery, pre-K and kindergarten. The kids were chiming in Chinese and the classrooms had a lot of education tools and supplies. The yard is big with lots of room for running. The elementary and middle school campus is at a different location from the nursery to kindergarten. It was so interesting just standing in the hallway, as I would hear chinese being spoken here and there. And then suddenly a kid would walk down the hallway, greeting a teacher “Bonjour”, and the teacher would cheerfully respond, “Bonjour. Tu es bien?”

Apparently kids in the Chinese immersion program pick up French as a third language so fast that the teachers were astounded. The elementary and middle school offers exchange programs for kids to go to China or Taiwan for a week or two at a time.

After this tour, I must say that if I don’t send Winston to this school, I will feel really delinquent. Of course, I recognize at the same time that this is mostly due to the “peer pressure” for parents. I can’t imagine how much peer pressure poor little Winston will feel when he grows up! :)